Parkland student activists Sofie Whitney and Ryan Deitsch visit Yale campus to speak about community organizing around the broader issue of a "culture of violence". Interview with Richard Hill, WPKN Radio producer (6:12) April 24, 2018

Three-part excerpts from Avi Chomsky's presentations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Day of Action on April 17. Includes a historical perspective as well as a question and answer session with immigrants. Recorded and produced by Chuck Rosina, long-time public affairs and news producer at WMBR FM, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's radio station in Cambridge, Massachusetts. April 17, 2018

Chuck Rosina's report on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Day of Action on April 17, where members of the MIT and broader local community were given an opportunity to devote the day to engaging with the political, economic, environmental and social challenges facing us today, through learning, discussion, reflection and planning for action. Includes comments from Avi Chomsky, daughter of the renowned professor Noam Chomsky (12:58) April 17, 2018

Tyler Suarez, lead organizer of the March for Our Lives demo in Hartford, CT on March 24, assesses the event attended by 10,000 and discusses the agenda for the youth movement going forward. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

Michael Zweig, economist and labor historian, unpacks the Supreme Court case Janus vs. AFSCME and
places it in the context of the history of American labor struggles since the 19th century. He also analyzes the extraordinary West Virginia teachers' strike and what it might portend for labor militancy going forward.

Zweig is professor emeritus at Stonybrook University, former director of the Center for the Study of Working
Class Life, and author of What's Class Got to Do With It? American Society in the Twenty-first Century)
Interviewed by Richard Hill. March 6, 2018.

Are private water companies free to bottle and export Connecticut's water?
Judy Allen, from Save Our Water Connecticut (SaveOurWaterct.org) explains the vulnerability of Connecticut's water to private interests and suggests remedies. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

Doria Robinson, executive director of Urban Tilth, a food justice project based in Richmond, California, describes her work creating a democratic food production and distribution network in that working class community. Doria argues that there can be no end to hunger and deprivation without a
radical economic transformation. Check out her work at urbantilth.org and foodfirst.org Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state.
Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

Lindsay Kanaly
The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT.
Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny,
discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live,
weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines'
interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m.
EDT at www.WPKN.org
(Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET
Monday nights,
and is available for at least a year following broadcast in
WPKN Radio's Archives.

Stay connected to BTL

This Week on Between The Lines

Posted May 25, 2016 for week ending June 3, 2016

"On one hand, (President Obama's) saying let's get rid of these things and have a world free of nuclear weapons. But on the other hand, we're funding, upgrading and building them into the indefinite future."

– Paul Kawika Martin, political and communications director with Peace Action, on President Obama's planned trip to Hiroshima and his contradictory positions on nuclear policy.

Listen to the entire program using these links, or to individual
interviews via the links appearing prior to each segment description
below.

Interview with Paul Kawika Martin, political and communications director with Peace Action, conducted by Scott Harris

Barack Obama will be the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the site of the world’s first atomic bomb attack during the waning days of World War II. Obama, who will be in Japan for a G7 Summit meeting, will tour Hiroshima on May 27, the city where an estimated 140,000 civilians died after the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945. A second American nuclear bomb targeted the Japanese city of Nagasaki on Aug. 9. Japan surrendered less than one week later.
Story continues

Around the United States, proposed fracked gas pipelines are being cancelled, even as many more such projects are applying for permits through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, which must grant a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to enable these projects to be built. Those pipeline projects that have been cancelled (or "suspended" and not likely to be revived) include the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline that would have traversed the states of Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire; the Constitution pipeline in Pennsylvania and New York, and the Pacific Connector pipeline in Oregon. Reasons for the cancellations vary, from a lack of customers to buy the gas, to the failure of companies to win permits through state health regulators. In every case, however, opposition by local residents and homeowners has been critical to these victories.
Story continues

Excerpt of a talk by Tariq Ali, a British writer and filmmaker, speaking at the Left Forum conference, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

There’s no doubt that we’re living in a time where there is enormous discontent, if not anger, about the failure of both our political and economic systems here in the U.S. Millions of working people across the country have seen their standard of living steadily decline – and what’s worse, parents see a future where their children will likely have less economic opportunity and security than they did. In short, what we’re seeing is the bubble bursting on the so-called American Dream – and the erosion of the middle class.
Story continues

The Huffington Post reports protests have broken out in Gambia, one of the most repressive nations in Africa. President Yahya Jammeh took power in a 1994 coup, in the West African nation of two million people. In recent years, thousands of refugees have fled the country to escape atrocities including the murder of gay men.
("Unprecedented protests hits one of the world’s most repressive countries," Huffington Post, May 13, 2016)